Session Information
18 SES 04, Effective Professional Learning in Sport and Physical Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Educational systems in many countries have embraced professional learning communities (PLCs) based on emerging evidence that they have a systematic and constructive effect on student learning (Hargreaves, 2007, Talbert, 2009). Grounded in contemporary research that acknowledges the impact of social practice on learning, PLCs are conceived and promoted as ‘learning withprofessional learning colleagues’ (Armour, 2012). Yet where PLCs have been presented as a panacea for professional development aspirations, research has tended to focus on individual agency, such as establishing norms of collaboration, reification, and developing mutual accountability (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006). This has resulted in sparse attention being given to the impact of institutional culture on building PLCs. This is an important area for further research because institutional structures are cultural products that serve as mediators in the construction and delivery of professional development discourse (Daniels, 2012). In conceptualising professional community building, therefore, there is a need to move beyond bureaucratic approaches (e.g. compliance), and towards a more sustainable model based on a professional culture (e.g. shared identity) that facilitates success for all learners. A PLC model based around a culture of professional learning recognises a community identity that, in turn, shapes the identities of its members; and such community exists because participation has relevance to its members.
Despite the potential of PLCs as systems of change, evidence indicates that PLCs are difficult to sustain within the dynamic organisational structures of many professions, which would appear to challenge claims that organisations are developing a ‘learning culture’ to support the development of autonomous professionals. The research questions which therefore shaped this study were;
- How doesinstitutional culture exert a formative effect on professional learning communities?
- What factors engender or inhibit change in professional culture?
The aim of this study was to examine how a large sports organisation in the UK attempted to (re)construct a PLC by reconceptualising the learning culture of a large and diverse sports coaching workforce. The organisation set out to move the structure of their professional development efforts towards a culture of collaborative work that promised a more sustainable and contextually authentic CPD provision. This involved using social media technologies, institutional rebranding, (re)construction of a professional learning identity, and a cascading community mentoring model from national to local level.
In examining the connections between institutional culture, PLC, and individual learning, this study drew on Bernstein’s concept of ‘recontextualisation’. Conceived as a sociology of pedagogy, Bernstein offers a language from which to exam how institutional culture (e.g. power, control) recontextualises discursive practices (e,g pedagogical discourse), both explicitly and implicitly (Daniels, 2012). From this perspective, PLC discourse can be conceived as an outcome of instructional discourse (what, how, skill, competencies) and regulative discourse (values, attitudes, character). In turn instructional/regulative discourses are an outcome of social and historical legacies that facilitate, or inhibit, system change. In this way, the study was able to consider, what Daniels (2012) describes as, the “sociologies of cultural transmission” in understanding how institutional culture mediated the social practices of a PLC.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Armour, K. (2012) Professions and the Mentoring Imperative. Presentation at the Australian Association of Educational Research, December, 2012, Sydney, Aus. Bernstein, B (1996) Pedagogy Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Criticsim. London, Falmer Press Daniels, H. (2012) Institutional culture, social interaction and learning. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 1 (1), pp. 2-11. Hargreaves, A. (2007) Sustainable professional learning communities. In L.Stoll & K. Seashore Louis (Eds.), Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth and dilemmas. Berkshire, England. Open University Press McLaughlin, M.W. & Talbert, J.E. (2006)Building school based teacher learning communities: Professional strategies to improve student achievement. New York: Teachers College Press Talbert, J.E. (2009) Professional learning communities at the crossroads. How systems hinder or engender change. In Hargreaves, A. (Eds.) Second International Handbook of Educational Change. Springer
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